


No Straight Lines

by FiKate



Category: Firefly
Genre: Dancing, Fic Exchange, Flying, Friendship, Gen, Mathematics, Physics, Psychic Abilities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-08
Updated: 2012-09-08
Packaged: 2017-11-13 19:09:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/506745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiKate/pseuds/FiKate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for <a href="http://ineedmyfics.dreamwidth.org/19409.html">ineedmyfics 2012</a> for silveraspen. </p><p> "River can map the stars with her fingertips, but that's not where she learned how to fly." When I read this prompt, I was struck by ideas of how River sees the world not just in terms of flying but everything. It was a wonderful challenge to play within this world.</p><p>River doesn't approach the world along normal lines, this story presents a small glimpse into how she sees it. Occurs during the television run.</p><p>Thanks to Steph Muji for helping me get Firefly right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Straight Lines

**Author's Note:**

  * For [silveraspen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveraspen/gifts).



To be a good pilot requires being able to think in three dimensions, because space doesn't care what you call up; it decides what's up and forward. River has always thought in multiple dimensions and found ways to move through them. In dance, she could see how all the dancer's parts fit together and where she had to step to complete the pattern. One of her teachers asked her once to choreograph a piece before she was sent to the Academy. It was an interesting challenge, finding ways to put algorithms into a form that could be danced, finding ways to shift movements. The teacher didn't know about all the physics of her dances - just what worked and how it should feel. It was a way of thinking that River admired, to be in one moment and turn it into the shape you wish it to be.

When Wash was flying, she'd watch the calculations of vectors move through his head in counterpoint to the dinosaurs and his jokes. Many of them she knew in ways he never would because he didn't care about the beauty of the math instead he was interested in their way through space. He didn't even seem to know all he knew and she'd laugh as he made a quick adjustment before anything told him they needed it. Everything was a little clearer up on the bridge with the stars in front and Wash's quick thoughts that flew around the cockpit as he made sure she wasn't bored. He never asked a lot of her and didn't seem to mind when she came at everything from another angle. At times he'd try and figure out a few of the vectors, but he didn't know her mind like Simon did. Simon though wanted her to be linear, to be like he was but she couldn't be, she had to be like she is.

Her inner self was altered to become something else and on good days when she can see the vectors and trajectories of those around her, then she finds where she fits. It would all be easier if the definitions were clearer. Then she could parse what she needed to do and show Simon all the new dimensions that she was experiencing. The bridge was best for piecing out definitions because it had a clear in and out, which simplified it enough and Wash with his colors and bubbling thoughts and flying vectors provided another anchor.

Simon knew her and knew when she didn't fit her old parameters and tried to help her back to them. River was certain that if she could just find the right way to explain to him then he'd understand as well as he ever could understand. He'd never seen as many dimensions as she did unless it was inside the body; then he could do it. It was something that she'd tried to show him when they were younger with her dance, how it all fit together.

River loves the liminal moments when Serenity resettles as everyone sleeps. Late at night and early in the morning when she can walk the catwalks and not meet anyone but dust motes as she listens to the music of the ventilators and the engines. She finds the secrets of Serenity then in the curves of her, which speak their own language of movement and power. On one of her first of these walks, she came upon Wash on the bridge, the vectors of the course darted around him as his thoughts moved like fish. As a joke darted by a dinosaur, she laughed and he turned, "Hey, you're awake."

"All present and conscious."

His laugh fills the air and gestures to the other seat, "More than I am, gets sort of quiet up here."

She considers the seat before lifting up on her toes, taking one leg up and then resting herself up on it so that she fits just in the hollow of the seat. Mal's left an impression on it and she wanted to not disturb his spot so she's found a way to be inside it.

Once she gets herself settled, he looks out again at the black that surrounds them, "So you know anything about flying?"

"Know how to follow the vectors," She says with a small sigh and a roll of her eyes, of course, she knows about flying.

"Figured you might, seeing as how your brother talks about how smart you are. Want to take a turn?" He gestures to the steering column in front of her.

"No need for course correction?" It's not like there's anything interesting going on, the course is laid out in front of them and she can follow it but there's not much to do. She gives him a sad look, that gets another laugh.

"Do you reckon I'd be letting you take over just because you asked nice? Take a turn now and then might be able to see about showing you more."

River's smile is bright as she takes the steering and adjusts in her seat to match his posture, but with a straighter back. The words of her dance teacher haven't been forgotten: draw yourself up and let all things move along that line.

Over time, she's learned to trace the world from the lines that move out from herself, the way a bullet spins, how to lift her leg to dance versus to fight, the feel when the world around her shifts out of joint, when Serenity changes the line she moves on to find a different path. The way everyone in Serenity has their specific paths, she's seen how Zoe and Wash always end up intersecting no matter where they might have started out going to, how Simon and Kaylee drift towards each other but don't touch, or how Mal and Inara have the most complicated dance of all, seeking and finding before moving away before touching, Jayne and Book go their own ways, their vectors can be harder to trace as they chart their own course.

In her hands, she feels Serenity respond to her touch, the ship moves differently than any person but River wants to learn all her ways. Wash leans back and his eyes follow her along the course before looking out to the black.

It becomes a habit with them, on times when their course requires long nights then River finds her way to the bridge to take a turn and control the vectors for a time. When it comes time for course changes and planning, River starts to find her way to being nearby until she starts to understand how Wash sees the stars and planets. He knows how to find the safe route where there shouldn't be one, because he sees all dimensions and lives in them. Though there's a night when he can't seem to find any path and she looks over his shoulder and finds the hidden way. After that, she finds a way to be close by whenever he's plotting the course. Mal gives her some odd looks before sighing at the realization that now she helps with the charting. In her opinion, the best part of these sessions is watching the sky shift in Mal and Wash's heads as they try to find where they want to go. Sometimes it gets reflected on the the datapad but the real work is done as they both imagine all the what-ifs on every route. All three of them know how to see the world in all its many dimensions.


End file.
